3: What makes public orgs distinct Flashcards
State owned enterprise
Hybrid organization that carries out public tasks but has businesslike characteristics.
They have more autonomy .
20% of the worlds stock market value
Common in China.
Generic Tradition
Emphasizes commonalities among public and private organizations.
Theorists who believed in generic tradition
Weber Frederick Taylor, Scientific management McGregor’s Theory Y Hawthorne experiment Kurt Lewin James Thompson
Herbert Simon
Described political context of public organizations, but argued that they’re more similar to private than different.
Haas, Hall, Johnson (1966)
An org’s tasks and functions have more influence on characteristics than whether they are public or private.
Pugh, Hickson, Hinings
Classified 58 organizations, but found no major differences. Public orgs had more external control over personnel.
Gray Sector Org
Hybrid-partially public, partially private
Van Thiel and van de Wal (2010)
Call hybrid orgs Parapublic
Hybrid orgs
Significant numbers in developed and emerging economies.
Examples are financing mortgages in student loans
Agencies
Organizations that carry out public tasks and an arms length of the government in a relatively autonomous way
Hybrid org definition
An entity created by government to address a specific public policy purpose it is owned in whole or in part by private individuals or corporations and generates revenue to cover operating costs
Origin of hybrid organizations
Many Nordic countries have used hybrid agencies to carry out public tasks for centuries.
New public management reforms popularized them.
United States Postal Service
Example of a hybrid organization. Has revenue, but must also provide universal service.
Intellectual dangers
Rainey 2014
oversimplify
confuse
mislead
impede theory & research
Max Weber
Did an analysis of bureaucratic organizations in public and private sectors
Who applied scientific management to public organizations
Frederic Taylor
Three examples of researchers who focused on social and psychological factors
Hawthorne studies
McGregor’s Theory Y
Kurt Lewin
James Thompson believed that
Public and private orgs have more similarities than differences
Herbert Simon assigned relative unimportance to
distinctiveness of public orgs
Organizations become bureaucratic due to
Size–not whether they are public or private
What influences an organization’s characteristics more than whether they are public or private?
Tasks and functions
What influences employee satisfaction & motivation in all sectors?
Leadership practices
An example of where governments depict higher degrees of control than private organizations
Personnel procedures
Pugh, Hickson and Hinings (1969)
Who used the term parapublic sector?
Van Thiel and van de Wal
